Amazon Producing Sitcoms

In response to a request for ideas made last May, Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and its Amazon Studios received more than 2,000 proposals from which it has now culled six to develop pilot programs for the studio to produce. The six pilot programs, all sitcoms, will be posted to Amazon's instant video streaming service.

Amazon and streaming video competitor Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) have taken to producing their own content in an effort to slow down the rise in licensing fees the two streaming services have to pay to traditional studios. Netflix signed a $300 million deal for programming from The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) beginning in 2016.

The streaming video companies are following the path of cable networks like CBS Corp.'s (NYSE: CBS) Showtime, Time Warner Inc.'s (NYSE: TWX) HBO, and Liberty Media Corp.'s (NASDAQ: LMCA) Starz, which all got their start broadcasting licensed contents but have since made the move to original programming in an effort to retain more profit.